Alamut

Published in 1989, Judith Tarr’s novel Alamut spans several genres: fantasy, alternative history, science fiction, and romance. Set between the Second and Third Crusades in twelfth-century Jerusalem, the novel posits an Earth on which creatures such as the fae, elves, and ifrits (in the book these are basically interchangeable versions of the same thing) can and do cross the boundary between their worlds and our own – but which otherwise features the same historical personage that existed in real life. The plot follows the attempts of a magical prince to foil the evil plans of the leader of the Order of Assassins in the mountainous Persian region of Alamut.

The novel grounds its action in the realities of the Christian Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Ruled by thirteen-year-old King Baldwin IV, who was also known as The Leper King, the kingdom was in the thrall of Christianity’s racist insistence that the Saracen “heathen” inhabits of the land must be destroyed. Baldwin IV’s illness and expected early death also meant that his court was an intense power struggle between those who hoped to inherit the throne. The Crusaders were opposed by the Muslim leader Saladin, whom the book portrays as a subtle and wise ruler, whose people mostly view the Christians as misguided, and seem willing to tolerate their presence should hostilities cease.

Our hero is Prince Aidan, who is the son of a mortal king from a fictional combination of Wales and Ireland and an immortal fae from the elf kingdom of Rhiyana. Aidan’s mixed heritage has both advantages and drawbacks. On the one hand, he has inherited some of his mother’s magical abilities: he can read the thoughts of people near him and invoke fire magic while fighting. On the other hand, he grew up effectively motherless, and has never fully fit in with full-blood humans, who view him with some level of distrust.



As the novel opens, Aidan travels to Jerusalem to visit his nephew Gereint and to pledge fealty to King Baldwin. Soon after he arrives, Gereint, the son of Aidan’s human sister, is killed by the dagger of an Assassin. While the family is still reeling from this death, the Assassins’ next victim is Thibault, Aidan's young grandnephew. Aidan realizes the intended target of that attack was actually Joanna, a married woman with whom he has a brief romance. The Assassins seem unstoppable. The book reveals that the order is named after the hallucinogenic substance hashish, which they ingest as a performance enhancer. (Critics point out that this is where Tarr’s research isn’t quite up to snuff – the historical Order of Assassins was named after the Arabic word AsāsiyyÅ«n (أساسيون), meaning “people of the faith,” and only connected with hashish by confused foreigners.

Aidan vows to find and kill the Assassins responsible for these deaths, and then to confront their leader, Rashin ad-Din Sinan, who is also known as the Old Man of the Mountain. As Aidan travels through Damascus and Aleppo on his way to Sinan’s stronghold in Alamut, he meets and gets help from Saladin, who offers him a group of loyal mamluks.

Aidan discovers that Sinan has pledged to continue killing members of Gereint’s family until the matriarch Lady Margaret agrees to marry him so that he can gain control of their land and resources. Sinan’s most closely guarded secret is that in order to fulfill his plan, he has summoned the Ifrit Morgiana – a spirit of fire – to serve him as an immortal Assassin. Morgiana comes from the same magical stock as Aidan, and as soon as she sees him, she falls desperately in love with him. Torn between the terrible magical oaths that have bound her to do Sinan’s bidding and the new love and desire she feels for her next target, Morgiana decides to use Aidan’s magic to free herself from Sinan.



Despite the many hardships he faces during his voyage, Aidan finally confronts the Old Man of the Mountain. The meeting ends in a kind of truce – Aidan has won some concessions on behalf of his family (basically, that the Assassins will stop murdering them), while giving Sinan control over some of their holdings. However, since Lady Margaret steadfastly refuses to marry Sinan, it is clear that the conflict is still simmering and won’t be resolved until Tarr’s sequel novel, The Dagger and the Cross.

The novel also resolves the love triangle that surrounds Aidan. The married Joanna returns to her husband, though she is pregnant with Aidan’s baby. Meanwhile, a desperate Morgiana has kidnapped Aidan, who makes this bargain with her: he will keep her sexually satisfied as long as they can work together to avenge the deaths of Gereint and Thibault. Although Aidan escapes long enough to make his way back to Jerusalem to swear his fealty to the King, Morgiana hasn’t been entirely “satisfied.” The novel ends with Morgiana bursting into the court to claim Aidan in marriage.